A view of the Moscow-City Business Center

MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/. Russia rose by 30 positions in a new Doing Business ranking of the World Bank (WB), taking the 62nd place. The WB rating assesses the comfort of doing business in 189 countries around the world. Greece is 61st, ahead of Russia and Moldova is below — in the 63rd position. In last year’s Doing Business ranking, Russia was 92nd between Barbados and Serbia.

“We have never before risen up 30 positions at a time. What has caused this growth? The National Business Initiative roadmaps have largely contributed to this. Of particular note are the measures facilitating the registration of business and property and getting building permit. In addition, the preparation of tax reports has become less consuming. I think such a substantial improvement of Russia’s position in the Doing Business ranking proves the effectiveness of direct and open dialogue between the authorities and the business community. This is the approach that was chosen in the roadmaps’ development and implementation,” says Andrey Nikitin, Director General of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI).

“This year’s report will present data for a second city for the 11 economies with more than 100 million inhabitants. These are Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, and the United States. It updates all indicators as of June 1, 2014, ranks economies on their overall ‘ease of doing business’, and analyses reforms to business regulation — identifying which economies are strengthening their business environment the most,” WB said in a release. “Doing Business illustrates how reforms in business regulations are being used to analyze economic outcomes for domestic entrepreneurs and for the wider economy.”

The ranking methodology changes with adding new indicators and cutting the time of registration of property rights and the simplification of the requirements for newly established enterprises have affected Russia’s results, say the World Bank materials.

The mathematical ranking calculation model of the new version of Doing Business has several new criteria on three points — the availability of loans, bankruptcy procedure and the protection of minority shareholders. Furthermore, the previous version of the ranking assessed the Russian indicators’ dynamics by one city — Moscow. And St. Petersburg indicators are added to the Doing Business-2015 version.

Russia occupies 156th place in terms of the time and ease of obtaining construction permits. It is on the 143rd place by connection to the electrical networks. In terms of the loans’ availability, Russia is on the 61st place. Regarding the bankruptcy proceedings mechanisms, Russia is 65th.

However, it is relatively easy to start a business in Russia — the country is on the 34rd place by this criterion, it is even easier to register the ownership right in Russia (12th place). It is also easy to enforce contractual obligations of business partners (14th place in the ranking). Russia is on the 49th place in the Doing Business ranking in terms of accessibility and clarity of the tax payment mechanism. The country still has problems with the protection of minority shareholders (100th place).

In 2016, the reform of the methodology will be continued, the World Bank says. New indicators will be added to the assessment process of obtaining construction permits, registering property rights, connection to electric power network, enforcement of signed contracts and organization of tax payment.

Singapore remains a country where launching a business is the easiest in the world, despite the methodology change. New Zealand has risen to the second place above Hong Kong. The United States was the fourth in the 2014 Doing Business ranking, has now dropped out of the top five, descending to the 7th place. Denmark holds the 4th place in the current rating and South Korea closes the top five.

The ranking’s top-10 has also changed as Georgia and Malaysia have dropped out with Finland and Australia taking their positions.